Louth boss Aidan O’Rourke insists that the black card has stripped defenders of their ability to tackle and expects to see massed defences in the Championship.

O’Rourke has raised his reservations about the black card already this year and having engaged in a number of challenge games in the run up to Louth’s Championship opener against Westmeath on Saturday week he claims that the massed defence is still very much in vogue.

It paints a very different picture to the one suggesting that the game has been enriched by more high-scoring games.

“I’m very interested in looking at the PR in all of this,” he said. “It’s been portrayed as a fantastic success and that is the perception. I’m not quite sure how that is judged.

“The only point I would make is that I hear this repeated that scores are up, therefore we have a better product. We have taken away the tools of the trade for a defender.

“In any field sport in the world, you have to have tools and the capacity to do your job. I would feel we’ve handicapped defenders considerably.

“I do agree with the ethos where the black card was going with trying to get rid of cynical play. I would agree with that entirely. But I just feel we’re at a basketball stage, where it goes up and down the court to see who scores the most.

“I understand why the people involved in the PR of the game would want to push that.

“But the game is about tackling and defending as well, we have to have the capacity to do both.”

The former Armagh star (right) insists that defenders are holding back, reluctant to commit to tackle for fear of being sent to the sideline.

“The biggest problem is mindset. They are reluctant to make tackles that they would have naturally made in the rest of their careers to date. Now maybe there’ll be a time of transition and people will figure out a way to make the tackles that they once made.

“It’s an adjustment of aggression and an adjustment the sort of belligerent defender’s mindset. But that doesn’t mean grabbing them by the neck or dragging them to the ground. It just means they stand off and don’t make contact.

“It’s a physical game. As many people or more come to see the physicality as the capacity for scores or wonderful attacking play.

“That is part of our game and part of our heritage. So to try and fundamentally adjust the mindset at the whim of somebody, I don’t know who, is fundamentally flawed in my view.”

With defenders hesitant when it comes to tackling, O’Rourke has seen teams pack their defence in recent games that Louth have played in an effort to compensate.

“Listen, colloquial evidence would suggest Championship preparation games or challenge games - I don’t know if you have a flavour of those - but they’d be fairly low scoring.

“In the games we’ve played, there’s been a huge number of players in defence. The reality is the lottery of refereeing at the moment, can you afford a one-on-one with a quality forward inside your ‘45? I’m not sure you can if players aren’t inclined to tackle.

“Again, I think that’s the way it’s going to go but the Championship will be the proving ground for that.”